


Hail Mary Plan

by Attorney C (arh581958)



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: #54 - The Road Not Taken, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Meetings, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Pilot episode rewrite, Pre-Slash, marveyficchallenges, road to be a real lawyer, the interview
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 10:10:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7528657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arh581958/pseuds/Attorney%20C
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Suits S01E01 - Pilot Rewrite. </p><p>Everything else the same; what if Harvey finds a way to hire Mike without him being a lawyer—<i>yet</i>—and even finds something to help Mike along the way?</p><p>The New York City Board of Law Examiners (BOLE) requires that applicants who are reading the law have at least one year of law school study, as per Rule 520.4 for the Admission of Attorneys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hail Mary Plan

**Author's Note:**

> First, let me get this clear off my chest; I am not from New York. I do not understand all of the legalese of New York laws or the Rules of Court for NYC BOLE. I do not, in anyway, suggest that you try this at home. This is written with minimal research (aka google). So, the facts are not 100% accurate. 
> 
> Second; it's always bothered me in the series whether or not Mike actually went to college. Did he? Or did he not? Was it undergraduate? Or Law School? Either way, for all intents and purposes in this story, Mike got kicked out of _undergraduate_ school. His major is completely of my own volition. 
> 
> Third; I organized my tumblr inbox today for all the prompts. I realized that I have several prompts from Klaine43, and I've been such a bad friend for having fulfilled _none_ so far. This is for you, my friend, I hope you forgive me. It's just that all your prompts seem to want to be multi-chapter stories and not simple one-shots. I'm finding it hard to fulfill. *cries* But, anyway, I tried. This is for the "Harvey meets Mike at that interview  from the show. And helps Mike back to the path of being a REAL Lawyer..." and you know what, hopefully, comes in the future. 
> 
> Fourth; the theme also coincides with marveyficchallenge #53 - The Road Not Taken. I've interpreted this as the choice that neither Harvey nor Mike thought about when the interview happened. Needless to say, it's a road that they didn't take. *giggles nervously* Yes, well, it's literal, oh well. 
> 
> **This work is not beta read,** but betas are welcome!

Harvey Specter, lawyer extraordinaire, sat back on plush leather chair provided by the hospitable Chilton Hotel management for the occasion, assessing. In front of him, a lanky blond-haired boy with bright blue eyes stared at him cautiously, appearing for all the world that Harvey held the faith of the world in his hands. He might as well have since what he decided today would determine the kid’s future.

To hire or not to hire.

A chance or no chance.

Prison or freedom.

He needed to make so many choices today.

To save this kid’s life or to save his.

Except; the kid wasn’t really a _kid_. Mike Ross was an adult in whatever way that one looked at him. He was a man who needed a shot at redemption for a stupid-ass mistake—a mistake which only arose because of ill-fated circumstance, snowballing from troubled upbringing caused by childhood misfortunes.

Harvey knew that feeling all too well.

“I’m inclined to give you a shot,” he said, testing, watching the flurry of emotions flashing across Mike’s face—relief, expectation, and hope. None of it bad considering the briefcase full of pot at Mike’s feet. “What if I decide to go another way?”

Mike tilted his head, trying for nonchalance but the drop of his shoulders gave him away. It was obvious that his forced his cocky gait. “I’d say, fine. Sometimes I like to hang out with people that aren’t that bright just to see how the other half lives.”

Smug bastard.

‘Thinks he’s the smartest one in the room,’ Harvey wrote on a piece of paper. Once upon a time, Jessica might have said the exact same words to him but she didn’t need to write it down. It was one of the way that they were different. She did things her way and he did his. She gave him a chance and so would he.

“Alright, here’s what you’re going to do—”

“You—you mean I’m hired?”

“No.” Harvey shook his head, and Mike’s shoulder slumped again, his face shadowed by rejection. “Not yet,” he corrected, “I can’t hire you _yet_. You’re not a lawyer and as impressive as your memory seems to be, I can’t risk my license of a hunch that you just might have what it takes to make it in this field. So, no, I’m not going to hire you—not yet. First, you have to finish your law degree first.”

Mike broke out into the largest grin that Harvey’s ever seen, nearly splitting the kid’s face in half and stretching ear to ear, but then it fell just as fast as it appeared. “Heh.” The bitterness rang through the single word. His lips twitched. “I can’t. They’ll—Harvard will never let me back in.”

“You passed Harvard? Undergraduate or law?” Harvey asked, both incredulous and extremely intrigued. What had a pot dealer been in Harvard? Or, rather, how could a Harvard passer even become a pot dealer in the first place?

“Both.” Mike shrugged either to play it off lightly or because he’d rather not talk about it.

Tough luck. What Harvey wanted to know, he would know.

“Tell me what happened. Tell me everything and leave nothing out,” he demanded, looking Mike straight in the eye. The younger man, visibly uncomfortable under the gaze, looked away.

Mike bit his lip, fingers white from how tightly he held them. “Do you… look, dude, it’s fine, this was a mistake. I’ll just… I’ll go. Don’t you have like other applicant to interview? I mean real applicants with real law degrees and real credentials? You’re wasting your time on a kick-out like me. I’ll just tell your secretary, Donna right? That this is all a mix-up. Thanks for, uh, covering for me with the cops.” He moved to stand.

“Sit down,” Harvey ordered but Mike refused to follow. “Sit your goddamn ass down or I’ll have Donna call security.” That got the blond to whip around and stare at him in fear.

“No, you wouldn’t.”

Satisfied that he got Mike’s attention, Harvey smirked. “Sit down and tell me what I want to know.”

“Why?” Mike’s voice came, barely above a whisper, “Why do you even care?”

Harvey didn’t have an answer, not really, but he wanted to know. Something about Mike captivated him, made him wonder, made him want to do things that he normally wouldn’t have even thought about. It’s not just Mike. It’s the story behind Mike, the story that he sought to find out.

“What was your major?” He asked instead, going off topic. “You said you passed both undergrad and law school. So, what was your undergrad major? What did you take?”

Mike sat back down with a sigh, resigned. “Economics… but I, uh… I didn’t finish it.”

“Tell me everything,” Harvey said, this time a request and not a command, curious in a way that shouldn’t be with a virtual stranger and imposter inside his conference room. He couldn’t help himself. “Please,” he heard himself add without much conscious though, “Why didn’t you finish it?”

“I… I got kicked out because I stole—well, _memorized_ —a math test. It was third year. Students loans were getting to expensive. I needed the cash for next semester. I couldn’t—I didn’t want to ask more from Grammy. It’s stupid. I knew she’ll give money from her pension. But she needed it for her meds too. So I… my friend Trevor and I decide we could sell it. For a quick buck, easy payout, you know? Turned out that he sold it to the Dean’s daughter.”

“You said you passed Harvard Law.”

“I did.” Mike nodded, then shrugged. “Not under my name though. I take tests for other people. I must have taken the LSAT for Harvard more time than I can count. Then a buddy of mine bets me that I couldn’t pass the bar exam. I took it and passed, but that doesn’t matter if I don’t have a degree to back it up, right? They’ll just catch me cheating.”

Harvey was stunned. “You passed _the bar_?” At Mike’s somewhat shy nod, he perked up, a plan starting to form in his head. “The New York Bar Exam? For Law? Or are you talking about another professional bar exam?

“I passed law and med. So?” Mike scratched the back of his head, cheeks lightly pinkish. “It doesn’t matter which one I passed if I didn’t go to school for it, right?”

“No, not necessarily,” Harvey said cryptically with a mischievous glint in his eyes. They could make this work—they just might. He opened the laptop in front of him and did a quick search on the New York Bar Exam website to check his hunch. Paragraph 520.4 answered his prayers.

“Mr. Specter?”

“It’s Harvey,” he corrected automatically with half his attention on the screen. Mike stared at him wide-eyed from across the table with a questioning look.

Harvey relented and showed him the screen. “I can’t believe that for all the things you could’ve read. You didn’t read up on BOLE Rules of Court.” He said, smugly, “ _This_ is what Harvard Attorney can do. We remember things like this and connect the dots to make it matter.”

Confusion, realization, then ultimately _hope_ flashes across Mike’s face.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Precision is everything in the law. We only hire from Harvard but there isn’t anything in the by-laws that states they had to finish _Harvard Law_. Now, tell me, Mike; am I just wasting my time here or are you going to shut up and listen to what I have to say?” For effect, he raises an eyebrow, daring the younger man to speak.

Mike doesn’t.

“Good.” Harvey grinned. “You’re going to go back to Harvard in the Fall and finish your degree. Economics or whatever. You’re going to graduate with a Harvard diploma. But for now, you start work a week from Monday—officially as a paralegal but _unofficially_ as my associate.”

Mike looked like a deer caught in headlights, stunned. “But I… Harvey I don’t even have the money for it.”

“I’ll pay—”

“But—”

Harvey raised his hand. “Would you shut up and let me finish?” He waited for the other man to nod before continuing. “It’ll be like a gentleman’s contract. I’m counting on your word. Hell, it’s your loss if you don’t. You’re going to finish your law degree, pass the LSATS, and go to Harvard for the required one year. Then, you’ll take the bar—under your name this time.”

Mike nearly gnawed up part of his lip with how hard he bit it. “You think this is going to work?”

Harvey stood to his full height, buttoning his jacket on the way up, looking for all the world to be the composed lawyer that he needed to be. Inside though, inside was a whole different ballgame. Did he? Did he really think this was going to work? Would Jessica even allow this? His eyes fell on Mike, and he forced all those thought away.

A slow smile, not really reassuring but trying to be optimistic, formed on Mike’s lips. Harvey unconsciously mimicked the gesture. He extended his hand towards the younger man for a handshake. Mike’s palm was calloused, dry, and firm.

“Maybe not,” Harvey answered honestly, but he let his sincerity show in his eyes. “But, maybe we can pull off our first Hail Mary.”

**Author's Note:**

> MarveyWeek may have just finished but that doesn't mean that I have to do and disappear from this fandom again. Season 6 is giving me too much feels that I need lighthearted stories like this again. I hope you liked it!
> 
> As always, if you liked or enjoyed this fic, you should know what to do. **Comment/Kudos/Bookmarks** are always appreciated by this author. :) 
> 
> If you have a prompt or an idea, you can [INSPIRE ME](http://arh581958.tumblr.com/submit) on tumblr. Or [TALK TO ME](http://arh581958.tumblr.com/ask)


End file.
